Casting Cantrips
Casting a Cantrip In order to cast a cantrip you must know a few things ahead of time: *You must know the rules for the individual cantrip (precisely how the cantrip treats your successes, how using different realms effects the cantrip, etc) - these are all detailed in the rules for the specific cantrip you are going to cast. *Next, you must know which Realm you are going to use. Typically, this is defined by the ‘target’ of the cantrip, but some cantrips handle Realms differently. If you do not have the appropriate Realm to do what you wanted to do, you may not cast the cantrip. Time and Scene are special realms known as Modifier Realms, we’ll discuss those later. Let’s get to casting your cantrips at all, right now, before we worry about special modifiers. *Additionally, you must know what Attribute the cantrip is tied to. All cantrips within a single Art have the same Attribute association. The dice pool for your cantrip casting is Attribute + Realm, where the attribute is determined by the art your cantrip comes from, and Realm is the realm you want to incorporate into the casting. Therefore, to cast any Pyretics cantrip on a chimerical item or changeling, you need to roll Dexterity + Fae. The difficulty for this dice-pool is, by default, is the banality rating of your target, plus four. This means that if you are a Childling (banality 1), the base difficulty to cast a cantrip is 5. But, if your banality 5 Mage friend is the target, your difficulty for the casting suddenly bumps up to 9 (their 5, plus four more). There are a great many ways to lower the difficulty on your cantrip casting. A few of the standards are listed below: *Spending a point of temporary Glamour lowers your difficulty by 1 for each point spent. You cannot spend more than half of your Glamour pool, rounded up in one turn. *Using a Modifier Realm (Time or Scene) adds that realm to your dicepool, but increases the difficulty of your Cantrip’s cast by 1. See below. *Using a Realm that your Kith has a Realm Affinity for lowers the difficulty by 1. *Possessing both Realms when one or the other might work for your casting (this means that if you are attempting to cast on a Garou in Lupus form, where both Nature 3 (for a being of part spirit, part wolf) and Actor might apply, possessing both of these realms grants -1 difficulty.) *Casting a cantrip on an enchanted non-Fae target also reduces the difficulty by 1. Finally, Bunks can lower the difficulty of your cantrip’s casting roll. Bunks come in varying degrees, from -1 to -5. Bunks are discussed below. Unless otherwise noted, the difficulty of a cantrip can never go below four. Most cantrips have a Glamour cost associated with them. Any cantrip that has an effect on the physical world is considered to be Wyrd, and therefore costs a point of Glamour in addition to any other costs accrued. Modifier Realms: Scene and Time The Scene and Time realms are special. Scene allows you to have any cantrip you cast effect more targets/a wider area, and Time allows you to ‘hold’ a cantrip’s casting to actually resolve at a later point in time. These realms are added into a casting, they do not replace the original realms used in that casting. Scene '- The more things you want to effect with your cantrip, the harder that cantrip is to cast. When you want to convert a cantrip into an AOE effect or have it effect more targets than it would normally be able to, Scene is the Realm you use for that. Simply incorporating the Scene realm into a casting increases the difficulty of the casting roll by 1 for each extra target the cantrip is intended to effect. For example, in order to effect yourself and your two friends with Quicksilver, you increase the difficulty of your Quicksilver cast by 2 (One for each extra friend.) You gain an additional number of dice in your cantrip’s casting dicepool equal to the number of dots in your realm (Therefore, casting Pyretics on multiple chimerical swords would become Dexterity + Fae + Scene.) In all cases, you must divide your successes amongst each target individually. '''Time '- The Time realm is a fun one. It allows your Changeling to cast a Cantrip at one point in time, but have the cantrip go off sometime later, instead. So, the character may cast Soothsay at the start of the day, but hold the magic in the spell until a specified point in time - releasing it then, instead of right away. At any point, a Changeling may activate his time-held cantrip before it’s intended release point: that is to say, if you designate your spell to happen at midnight, you could make it go off any time between now and midnight. Releasing a ‘held’ cantrip in this fashion does not take an action. In order to cast a cantrip and hold it with the Time realm, you add your dots in Time to your dicepool just like you would with Scene. Playing with the dan-threads of time makes your casting more difficult, however - increase the casting difficulty of the Cantrip by 1. Therefore, to hold a Pyretics casting for your sword so you can release it later, you would roll Dex + Fae + Time, at a +1 difficulty. The realm of the cantrip to be “held” is determined at the time of casting, as is the difficulty. Releasing the spell is simply allowing the magic to work on it’s own - the banality present upon the release of the spell doesn’t matter, only that present upon the casting of the spell initially. Any and all glamour spent on the casting of this spell is locked into the spellcast: If you spend 3 glamour on a cantrip and hold it, you may not regain or spend that glamour until the cantrip is released. Bunks Normally, you cannot cast a cantrip without a Bunk. (The one exception is a cantrip that has a base difficulty less than 10 before reductions. And even then, it costs an additional point of Glamour to do so.) Bunks are often the way to go. There are lots of lists of example bunks everywhere, but here we’ll discuss what a bunk consists of so you can make your own. '''A bunk is obvious. It is something that, if the changeling is being observed? Is clearly noticeable and out of character for the changeling. It must be something that anyone with any knowledge of bunks may immediately recognize as part of the casting of a spell. Whether you spin in a circle three times and clap, recite a little rhyme, or start burning dollar bills - the bunk must be obviously bunky in order to count. A bunk matches the theme of its art. A Pyretics bunk might involve you burning something or imitating fire, or singing about fire. A Soothsay bunk might involve you reading tea-leaves. An Aphrodesia bunk might include flirtatious or sensual behavior. But you can’t necessarily burn things for Soothsay, or read tea leaves for Aphrodesia. 'Bunk Levels' A bunk is rated from level 1, to level 5. There are some basic guidelines to defining what bunks fall into what levels of bunk. A bunk reduces it’s cantrip’s casting difficulty by a number of points equal to it’s level. Therefore, a level 3 bunk grants -3 difficulty to the cantrip casting. Level 1 bunks typically only take one action to perform. This action is actually spent on the casting itself - you don’t need to spend two actions in order to cast a cantrip. The dice roll is actually part of the bunk itself. : Examples: Stomping your foot three times, reciting a quick little rhyme, bellowing a catchphrase or inventing a new name for your special attack and announcing it loudly, for all to hear. Level 2 bunks typically take two actions to perform. Alternatively, a prop - an item, specifically intended for the sole purpose of being used for the Art in question, might be involved. : Non-prop Examples: running circles around your target, sticking your hand into a fire and holding it there for a moment, holding your breath and jumping around flailing, singing a particularly long and appropriate verse. : Prop Examples: using a fortune telling device for Soothsay or Chronos, drawing a circle around a target with blessed chalk, a four-leaf clover, etc. Level 3 bunks typically take three or more actions to perform. Alternatively, destroying a prop also works at this level of bunk. : Non-prop examples: A full game of Hopscotch or Tic-Tac-Toe, a particularly elaborate dance or song. : Prop examples: Smashing a crystal ball, burning a special item, sacrificing something important to the magic of the cantrip. Level 4 bunks typically take a full scene to perform. They may or may not involve props, but they typically do. These bunks tend to be very ceremonial: A whole wedding, an entire shamanic rite, etc. Level 5 bunks typically involve legendary items or entire quests to pull off. These are major plot-points, not simple bunks. : Examples: Acquiring a breath of flame from a certain type of dragon. Drinking from the Cup of Dreams. Working a ritual at four individual nodes of power scattered across the world. These bunks may be required for the most powerful, or permanent magical affects. They almost always have a cost of a point of permanent Glamour to go along with them as well. Step-by-Step 'Step One: Choose an Art ' The first thing a changeling must do when casting a cantrip is to choose an Art. There can never be more than one Art involved in the casting of a cantrip. All Arts are defined as being either chimerical or wyrd. Chimerical Arts are those that have only chimerical effects, or effects that are so subtle that the unenchanted beings who witness them won't notice anything out of the ordinary. Wyrd Arts are those that have a physical effect in the real world, and that are noticeable by mortals. 'Step Two: Choose a Realm' Realms typically describe the target (person or thing) that is affected by the cantrip. In certain cases, more than one realm may be used in casting a cantrip. Modifier realms such as Scene and Time are applied at this time. 'Step Three: Determine the Dice Pool' The Dice Pool is determined by adding the appropriate Attribute (based on the Art being used) to the level of the Realm being used. This gives you the total number of dice that can be rolled to cast the cantrip. If your character has a higher level in a Realm than necessary for casting, you may still add all the levels he possesses in that Realm to the Dice Pool. 'Step Four: Choose a Bunk' A Bunk is an act performed to activate Glamour so that a cantrip can take effect. It is often something as silly as singing a song, saying a rhyme backward, or dancing in circles. But it can involve tasks such as drawing an ornate door in chalk or laying a full Tarot spread. The type of Bunk should always be appropriate to the nature of the cantrip being cast. Bunks are assigned a value, levels 1 through 5, based on the complexity and appropriateness. Level 1 Bunks can almost always be performed in the same action as casting a cantrip. In the terms of combat, a Bunk's level is determined by the number of actions sacrificed to perform it. Level 2 and 3 Bunks can be performed in the same turn but are considered an additional action and require a split die pool. A level 2 Bunk subtracts 2 dice from the cantrip's Dice Pool, while a level 3 Bunk subtracts 3. Level 4 and 5 Bunks are too complex to be performed in a single round. Props and sympathetic links often increase a Bunk's level by 1 as well. Cantrips that have a starting difficulty of 10 or less can be cast without the use of a Bunk at the cost of one additional point of temporary Glamour. 'Step Five: Determine Difficulty' The base difficulty for casting a cantrip is either the target's or the caster's Banality + 4, whichever is higher. Subtract the level of the Bunk from the total difficulty. Additional Glamour can be spent to lower the difficulty even further, at the rate of -1 per point spent. The end result can never go below 4 or above 10. In Dusk, cantrip difficulties that exceed 10 are treated as difficulty 10 before Glamour is spent, and Bunks are applied. This is a change to the core rules that works as a balancing effect in a crossover heavy game. Casting in the Dreaming can lower a cantrip's difficulty. In Freeholds or the Near Dreaming, the difficulty is reduced by 1. Casting on enchanted non-fae targets also reduces the difficulty by 1. 'Step Six: Determine Glamour Cost' Numerous factors determine the Glamour cost for casting a cantrip: *All Wyrd cantrips cost one Glamour. *Chimerical cantrips cost no Glamour. Though you may still spend additional Glamour to lower the difficulty of casting. *Casting a cantrip without a Bunk requires an expenditure of one Glamour. *Up to one half of your Permanent Glamour can be spent in one round to lower casting difficulty. *Using a modifier Realm costs an additional point of Glamour. 'Step Seven: Make the Roll, Apply the Result' Using the information from above, roll Attribute + Realm at the prescribed difficulty, and look to the individual cantrip rules for the outcome of a success, or number of successes. Countering Cantrips Changelings can counter cantrips in one of two ways. By invoking banality, a character can resist the effects of a cantrip that is directed at them. The character gains a temporary point of Banality by resisting a cantrip in this way. To do so, roll the character's permanent Banality against a difficulty of the caster's permanent Glamour. Each success subtracts one success from the cantrip in question. Invoking banality does not cost an action. The character does not need to be aware that they are being targeted with a cantrip to resist in this way. The other option is Counterweaving. This requires the Realm Fae: 5 and a knowledge of Gremayre. To Counterweave, you must spend a point of Glamour and then roll Wits + Gremayre at a difficulty equal to the Glamour rating of the cantrip's caster. To successfully counter a cantrip, you must achieve equal or more successes than the caster. The point of Glamour is not forfeited if the Counterweaving is unsuccessful. Familiarity with both the cantrip being cast and the Realm in use reduces the difficulty of the Counterweaving roll by 1. If the Realms used in a cantrip are not readily apparent, you may roll Perception + Kenning (difficulty 6) to determine their nature. At difficulty 8, you can determine the exact Art being used.